America Under Attack By Russia, and, Indirectly by the American President...

America is, without a doubt, witnessing the most corrosive and destabilizing political environment since the War Between the States. Its magnitude is frightening, the potential for our nation completely fracturing is real. Extremes in the rightwing as well as extremes in the leftwing are the forces and drivers behind our present inability to unify as the diverse nation that we are and always have been.

From the Mueller investigation to mass shootings and immigration we are facing difficult issues. At a time the nation is in great need of leadership capable of providing moral guidance, strength with empathy, and standing up to a very real threat and present danger from a hostile foreign government, we are saddled with a narcissistic president who has displayed none of the aforementioned qualities and strengths.

For the purpose of this post we focus on the Russian threat to our democracy and its democratic principles. by turning to a most excellent analysis by 

As the rest of America mourns the victims of the Parkland, Florida, massacre, President Trump took to Twitter.

Not for him the rituals of grief. He is too consumed by rage and resentment. He interrupted his holidaying schedule at Mar-a-Lago only briefly, for a visit to a hospital where some of the shooting victims were treated. He posed afterward for a grinning thumbs-up photo op. Pain at another’s heartbreak—that emotion is for losers, apparently.

Having failed at one presidential duty, to speak for the nation at times of national tragedy, Trump resumed shirking an even more supreme task: defending the nation against foreign attack.

Last week, Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian persons and three entities that conspired to violate federal election law, to the benefit of Trump and Republican congressional candidates. This is not the whole of the story by any means. This Mueller indictment references only Russian operations on Facebook. It does not deal with the weaponization of hacked information via WikiLeaks. Or the reports that the Russians funneled millions of dollars of election spending through the NRA’s political action committees. But this indictment does show enough to answer some questions about the scale and methods of the Russian intervention—and pose a new question, the most important of them all.

The new question is this: What has been—what will be—done to protect American democracy from such attacks in the future? The Russian attack in 2016 worked, yielding dividends beyond Vladimir Putin’s wildest hopes. The Russians hoped to cast a shadow over the Clinton presidency. Instead, they outright elected their preferred candidate. Americans once thought it was a big deal that Alger Hiss rose to serve as acting temporary secretary general of the United Nations. This time, a Russian-backed individual was installed in the Oval Office.

From that position of power, Trump has systematically attempted to shut down investigations of the foreign-espionage operation that operated on his behalf. He fired the director of the FBI to shut it down. His White House coordinated with the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to misdirect the investigation. He mobilized the speaker of the House to thwart bipartisan investigations under broadly respected leadership. He has inspired, supported, and joined a national propaganda campaign against the Mueller investigation.

And all the while, Trump has done nothing—literally nothing—to harden the nation’s voting systems against follow-on Russian operations. On Sunday, he publicly repudiated his own national-security adviser for acknowledging at the Munich Security Conference the most incontrovertible basics of what happened in 2016.

It’s worth thinking about what a patriotic president would have done in Trump’s situation. He would be leading the investigation himself. He would be scouring his own campaign—doing everything in his power to reassure the country that whatever the Russians may or may not have done, his government owed Putin nothing. He would have imposed penalties on Russia for their outrageous acts—rather than protecting Russia from penalties voted by Congress. Above all, he would be leading the demand for changes to election laws and practices, including holding Facebook to account for its negligence.

At every turn, Trump has failed to do what a patriotic president would do—failed to put the national interest first. He has left the 2018 elections as vulnerable as the 2016 elections to Russian intervention on his behalf.

The president’s malignant narcissism surely explains much of this passivity. He cannot endure the thought that he owes the presidency to anything other than his own magnificence. “But wasn’t I a great candidate?” he tweeted plaintively at 7:43 a.m on Sunday morning.

America is at risk from a foreign government and we have a president (so called anyway) that lacks the intelligence, wisdom, patriotism, character, and true inner strength to do a goddamn thing about it. Makes one very uneasy an uncertain for the future of our democratic republic. The republic men much greater, braver, and more patriotic than our DOTARD president have died defending and protecting.

Continue reading David Frum's article BELOW THE FOLD.

Comments

  1. David Frum and other Conservatives understand what a threat to our democracy Trump is. The only people who support him and think he's good for the country are the far right fringies. They are a small minority of the voting public and they are NOT mainstream. There will always be people like that in any given population, but why should they wield power over the rest of the sane population?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, RN, I almost forgot. Please accept my warmest regards for your excellent blog and for your intelligent insights.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Shaw.

      If that doesn't get the trumpers over at the rightwing "think" dump going nothing will!!

      Delete
  3. It is no surprise....

    https://www.axios.com/experts-rank-trump-as-worst-president-obama-as-8th-best-1519065065-dd7781fd-2070-484a-9553-f9cc676635e6.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Not that these facts will sway the land lampreys at Queen Latrina's Poo Loo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True. It will be viewed as nothing more than fake news.

      Delete
  5. America wasn't attacked. We are not "under attack". 13 Russians said nasty things about HRC on the internet. I guess the "deep state" operative Mueller thinks this is something to indict people over. What about the "dim bulbs on the BBC who trashed Trump every night and twice on Sunday?" Willis Hart wonders if there will be indictments for them too. Willis might be the only pro-globalism #trumpdupe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for keeping us up to date on the Hart's Mart of Shart. You know that place... it's so crowded that nobody goes there any more.

      Delete
  6. The LEFTWARD BIAS of the ENEMEDIA is so nauseatingly palpable it looks, –– feels –– and SMELLS –– like a heavy, shit-caked, urine soaked HORSE BLANKET.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I totally agree! In your delusional and demented mind.

      Good Day...

      Delete
  7. I think this latest Anonymous iteration of TOM/Paul must have a career mucking out stables. And not doing a very good job of it. Judging from his vocabulary, anyway.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Given the rhetotical cant of the comment it appears Amomymous tis likely one of FreeStinke's disciples.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    3. There are many, it seems, working in Lisa's WYD horse-sh*t stable. But instead of mucking it out, they make it more foul.

      Delete

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